Skip to main content

Watch the key moments from Virgin Orbit’s successful rocket launch

Virgin Orbit launched a rocket from a converted passenger jet on Wednesday, June 30, sending a payload of small satellites into low Earth orbit.

The successful mission marked the official start of Virgin Orbit’s commercial service for small-satellite launches.

Recommended Videos

The Virgin Orbit team successfully demonstrated the system in a launch in January, with Wednesday’s Tubular Bells: Part One mission following largely the same procedure.

The jumbo jet, called Cosmic Girl, carried the LauncherOne rocket under its left wing. Once it reached its launch altitude, the rocket blasted into space to deploy payloads for three customers from three countries: The U.S. Department of Defense Space Test Program, Polish satellite firm SatRevolution, and the Royal Netherlands Air Force.

Virgin Orbit livestreamed the key stages of the successful mission. You can watch them in the clips below.

It started with the Boeing 747 departing the Mojave Air and Space Port in California and heading out over the Pacific.

Tubular Bells: Part One Livestream | Virgin Orbit

Once the jet reached an altitude of just 0ver 30,000 feet, the LauncherOne rocket detached from the aircraft’s wing, ignited, and then blasted into space.

https://twitter.com/VirginOrbit/status/1410341782986973184

Stage separation took place at 335,000 feet.

Tubular Bells: Part One Livestream | Virgin Orbit

This was followed by the fairing coming away from the rocket at an altitude of 387,000 feet.

Tubular Bells: Part One Livestream | Virgin Orbit

Finally, Virgin Orbit tweeted what appeared to be the satellite deployment.

https://twitter.com/VirginOrbit/status/1410300395352596480

“It was such a special moment to stand on the flight line with the wonderful team and celebrate as Virgin Orbit flew to space for the second time, launching all seven customer satellites into orbit,” Virgin Orbit founder Richard Branson wrote in a message posted soon after the mission ended.

Branson added: “Many people told us it was impossible: Launching a rocket from underneath the wing of an adapted Virgin Atlantic 747 airplane at 30,000 feet and soaring to space at 17,500 mph to drop off satellites into orbit.”

Virgin Orbit will compete with the likes of SpaceX and Rocket Lab, who use more conventional ground-based rocket launches to get their customers’ satellites into space.

Indeed, Branson noted in his message that Virgin Orbit’s special launch platform marks it out from others in the industry.

“This unique way of launching is what makes Virgin Orbit different [from] its competitors — we are the only launch company that can go anytime, from anywhere, to any orbit,” he said. “Launching from the air means we can provide a light, fast, flexible, and affordable satellite launch system. Using a 747 airplane and a runway rather than a launch pad means we can take a route to space from any airport in the world.”

In fact, the company has partnerships in place for rocket flights from the Pacific island of Guam, as well as Cornwall in the U.K., while it’s also in talks with officials in Japan, Brazil, and Abu Dhabi with a view to launching from those locations, too.

Virgin Orbit’s next mission is expected to take place sometime this year before launches ramp up in 2022.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
SpaceX just launched a private crew to orbit — watch the highlights
SpaceX launches Fram2 private mission on March 31, 2025.

SpaceX has just launched its first private crew to orbit since the Polaris Dawn mission in September 2024.

A Falcon 9 rocket launched the Fram2 crew from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 9:46 p.m. ET on Monday, March 31.

Read more
How to watch SpaceX launch private Fram2 mission tonight
SpaceX's Fram2 crew, set for launch in March 2025.

SpaceX is about to launch its first private human spaceflight mission in nearly seven months.

The mission, set to lift off on Monday evening, will use a Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft to send four civilians into a polar orbit, in what will be a first for a human spaceflight mission.

Read more
Watch this new European rocket lift off … then crash
Isar Aerospace launches its Spectrum rocket for the first time.

An effort by Isar Aerospace to become the first European commercial space company to launch an orbital rocket from continental Europe failed in spectacular fashion when the vehicle lost control and exploded soon after liftoff on Sunday.

The inaugural launch of the two-stage Spectrum rocket took place at the Andøya Spaceport in Norway at 12:30 p.m. local time.

Read more